WONDERS OF WIRELESS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18171, 17 August 1922, Page 9

WONDERS OF WIRELESS.

;';. '"'.V , r — ♦. ' . EXPERIMENTS IN AUCKLAND. ENGLISH STATION HEARD, LINERS CROSSING ATLANTIC. The wonderful developments that have taken place lately in the realm of wireless have caused some remarkable feats to ho accomplished by experimenters in Auckland. The man-in-the-street might bo forgiven should he hesitate to believe that wireless, messages from England can bo heard in Auckland. Yet that is stated as a fact. Mr. B. G. Penny, of Nelson Street, who has been carrying on experiments for many years, reports having " picked up " the powerful station at-Carnarvon, Wales, using only a single detector circuit. He has also heard messages from the Aquatania and Mauretaujg, when those liners were crossing the Atlantic, and he distinguished a call from the Olympic, leaving Southampton for New York, to Pool Harbour, Dorset. Stations in France, Germany, b South Africa, India, China, and Japan have been frequently heard by Mr. Penny, while it is au everyday occurrence to hear the United States and islands in the Pacific. Some time ago he " picked up" a call from the Niagara when the vessel was leaving Vancouver. Interesting observations on experiences while "listening in" were made by Mr. G. Mcß. Salt, demonstrator in physics at the Auckland University College, who referred to the fact that it was possible to hear the high-powered stations at Lyons, Bordeaux and St. Assise, in France, only • at certain times of the day. This was on account of the varying atmospheric conditions and it w*as a question how the Marconi Company, which proposed setting up a iitation In England to communicate with Australia, overcome the difficulty. A scheme of relay stations, as originally intended by the Imperial Government, would make communication possible at all times of the day. At half-past seven in the morning, said Mr. Salt, Bordeaux sent out time-signals, a dot every second for five minutes. These sisrnals were used by Dr.'C. E. Adanjs, Government Astronomer, to assist in standardising the clocks at the Hector Observatory in Wellington. The station at Nauen, just outside Berlin, has been heard by Mr. Salt at certain times of the day, and also stations in Rome, Japan, the United States, and other places. All the Australian coastal stations working ships were heard with great distinctness. Professor R. Jack, of Dunedin, had followed Home boats for seven days out, which meant something well over 3000 miles, and had heard a warship's wireless 4000 miles away. Dealing with wireless telephony, Mr. Salt said that Professor Jack had been heard very distinctly at Hamilton, and he had. also been picked up once at the Auckland University College. Permission had been given him to use a much higher power, in which case he should be heard distinctly in all parts of New Zealand and possibly also in Australia. A station at Melbourne had been picked up in New Zealand with the use of only one valve. EEOOEDS BY THE TAHITI. MESSAGES SENT 5400 MILES. Some record wireless sending was done by the Royal Mail steamer Tahiti an her last trip from San Francisco to Wellington and Sydney. Mr. Emb, the senior wireless officer, reported at Sydney> that the wireless installation on the vessel bjid been giving consistently excellent results when working with the San Francisco i wireless illation. . The following list shows that the high efficiency of the wireless installation was proved night after night by the Tahiti sending messages over thousands of miles to the coastal wireles' station at the port she had left a fortnight before:— July 21, 3546 miles; July 23, 4200 miles; July 25, 4519 miles; July 26, 4780 miles; and July 28, 5430 miles . The Tahiti carries a 1& k.w installation, and the equipment includes valye receiving sets of the panel type, recently designed. This type of receiver has been fitted in ships going to all parts of the world and is reported to have given wonderful results in every direction.